Portable electronic devices, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants, wireless handheld devices, and digital audio players, are becoming increasingly popular. The value of these devices arises, in large part, due to their portability, i.e., due to their light and compact nature and their ease of transport. Given the relative expensiveness of such devices, it is desirable to store them in some sort of mounted storage holder to avoid misplacing or losing these devices when they are not in use.
Further, in light of the portability of such electronic devices, consumers often take such devices along with them while engaging in recreation or traveling in vehicles, such as automobiles, trucks, boats, etc. These electronic devices give consumers capabilities that they might not otherwise have while traveling, such as, for example, communicating remotely with third parties, accessing the internet and listening to music. Given the expensiveness of such devices, however, it is often desirable to transport them in a secure manner in order to prevent them from becoming damaged or stolen when traveling in a vehicle.
One common method of storing such electronic devices when traveling is to place them in the glove compartment of a vehicle. Storing an electronic device in a glove compartment provides several advantages. Storing a device in this manner conceals it from the sight of a vehicle occupant or casual passerby and therefore serves to make the device less vulnerable to theft. Also, an electronic device may be further protected from theft by securing it in a glove compartment that may be locked.
Glove compartments, however, have not been specifically designed for carrying such electronic devices, and accordingly, suffer from a number of shortcomings. More specifically, glove compartments do not provide a way for electronic devices to be mounted within the glove compartment, thereby resulting in the storing of electronic devices in a haphazard and cluttered manner. Further, electronic devices contain sensitive internal components that are particularly vulnerable to damage resulting from violent impact with the interior of a glove compartment during motion of the vehicle. Thus, because electronic devices are not immovably mounted in the glove compartment, their sensitive internal components often become damaged by such violent impact, thereby rendering the electronic device inoperative. It also is important to store electronic devices in a manner that they cannot be accidentally activated. This is undesirable because the power may become depleted and the device therefore will not operate when desired until charged.
There is also a need for a holder that allows electronic devices to be mounted in a glove compartment while simultaneously providing musical entertainment to occupants of the vehicle. For example, certain electronic devices, such as a digital audio player with an FM transmitter plug-in accessory, may be operated while being carried in the glove compartment. Such electronic devices can be used to wirelessly connect the digital audio player to the vehicle's FM stereo. This wireless connection allows music from the digital audio player to be played over the vehicle FM receiver while the digital audio player is mounted and locked in the glove compartment.
Further, there is a need for the storage of electronic devices in the marine environment. Generally, recreational watercraft suffer from a lack of abundant storage space, such as for securely storing a portable electronic device. In this marine environment, it is important to be able to store electronic devices in glove compartments to protect them from water damage resulting from wind and spray. Other storage areas, such as on or near the floor of a boat, often accumulate moisture that would otherwise damage an electronic device and likely render it inoperative. Thus, it is particularly important to provide a glove compartment that can hold an electronic device in a manner that prevents unwanted clutter, to make the electronic device less vulnerable to theft, and to prevent damage to the electronic device based on violent impact caused by the high load marine environment, i.e., violent impact, for example, caused by sudden up-and-down or side-to-side changes in boat direction or by jarring contact with the water.
Accordingly, a need exists for a simple electronic device holder that can be mounted, such as to the inside of the glove compartment door of an automobile, truck, boat, or other vehicle, for securely holding a portable electronic device. Such a holder should allow the electronic device to be easily removed from the holder. Further, such a holder should be easy to mount and install and not require any special tools or fasteners to mount the holder to the door.